Mudassar Arani convicted

Kuala Lumpur , June 7 (ANI): Mudassar Arani, a controversial lawyer, who represented Muslim cleric Abu Hamza and other terror suspects and earned almost one million pound in legal aid last year, has been convicted.

Arani is reported to have earned a total of 3.5million pound over the last seven years.

Figures from the Legal Services Commission show that legal aid fees collected by her firm, Arani & Co, have almost quadrupled since the financial year 2001-02.

According to the Daily Express, as per the documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, Arani’s firm was paid 390,000 pound in May 2007 alone for legal aid work.

The firm’s earnings have soared 120,000 pound - or 16 per cent - in the last 12 months, mostly defending extremist suspects including the former Muslim cleric Hamza, who is fighting extradition to the United States .

Her other clients includes the “dirty bomb” plotter Dhiren Barot and three of the July 21 bombers. She also represented Sulyeman Zain-Ul-Abidin, the first Muslim tried and cleared under the Terrorism Act 2000 following the September 11 attacks on America in 2001.

Arani, 44, sparked controversy when it emerged that her firm was circulating advice leaflets to “Muslims and those identified as anti-Establishment” on how to deal with the security services.

The lawyer, who speaks Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and English, arrived in the United Kingdom from Uganda aged eight in 1972 after dictator Idi Amin expelled the African country’s whole Asian population.

Arani & Co primarily carry out publicly funded work in the areas of family and criminal law, by providing initial advice and, when required, assistance at court in family disputes. (ANI)